After 28 years of protecting Jersey City from the consequences of low taxes, up-to-date schools, free speech, the C.I.O., and modern sewers, Mayor Frank Hague faced another election. As the campaign went into its last fortnight, profane, puritanical-looking Boss Hague was able to contemplate the works of his opponents with heavy-lidded equanimity.
By odd coincidence Attorney General Walter D. Van Riper, who had come in to clean out Hague's bailiwick, was being tried last week in Federal Court on embarrassing chargesdealing in black-market gasoline. And Hague's opposition, the "Liberation ticket," had split in mid-campaign. Four of its members were accusing...